Daily Archives: August 12, 2008

Sounds like Stephen Garcia’s off to a great start in preseason practice:

The second-year quarterback, who returned Aug. 1 from a four-month suspension that was to have lasted until Aug. 15, is back doing what he’s done for most of his brief USC career – watching – after spraining his right ankle “sometime Saturday,” as Steve Spurrier put it.

Very nice slice and dice from Elkon today: with three quick questions, he managed to make Tommy Bowden look stupid and Stewart Mandel blind. Now, granted, those aren’t necessarily hard things to accomplish, but you still have to admire the efficiency behind it.

The AJ-C brings us the next chapter in the Josh Jarboe saga. And you don’t have to read any further than the headline to know where it’s going: Lawyer: Ex-Sooner Jarboe ‘victim of technology’. We’re told the kid is in a state of shock after the dismissal.

There are some valid points in Jarboe’s defense raised in the article. “Victim” aside, there’s something to be said about the generational and cultural gap here between the judgment makers and the student athlete:

“Five years ago, this never would’ve made it out of the dorm,” says J. Brent Clark, a lawyer in Norman, former NCAA enforcement officer and author of a book about Sooner football. “Josh Jarboe has been victimized by technology. He wasn’t doing anything different than thousands of young people across the country, in terms of making up his own rap lyrics. What Josh did was normal activity for his age group, his ethnicity and his interests.

“Was it poor judgment? Yes,” Clark adds. “But what kind of standard are we holding these kids to? I don’t know a 50-year-old white male who has any clue about dorm life in 2008 — and I’m a 50-year-old white male.

“But who are the decision makers? Fifty-year-old white men.”

And my first thought on reading the story about his dismissal mirrored Bob Stoops’ attitude about it.

… Even Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops initially seemed to defend Jarboe against the Internet’s intrusiveness. “Kick a guy off the team for what he says?” Stoops told The Oklahoman. “Now we’re in people’s homes, in their private spaces.”

On the other hand, how much effort does it take to realize that rapping about gun violence in the wake of being kicked out of high school for a weapon violation probably isn’t the smartest behavior? And technology cuts both ways here – Jarboe’s generation is far more familiar with cell phone videos and Facebook than the 50 year old white guys who passed judgment on him. So shouldn’t he have been at least somewhat aware of what could happen when his teammate held up a phone to capture the moment?

Jarboe’s hurting now, but that’ll pass. After all, as the article mentions,

… Coaches say a string of schools have called — from Big Ten and SEC programs to historically black colleges. He’s eligible to play this season and could choose a new school this week.

He’ll survive. If he learns from the experience, that’ll say something about his character and maturity. If there are more bad decisions down the road, maybe those 50 year old white guys knew something after all.

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UPDATE: Barnhart explores the mindset of those 50 year old white guys with this thought:

… Here is the harsh reality of this situation. This is really not about Jarboe or some kind of clash of cultures or a generational misunderstanding.

This is about the fact that in April of 2007 a crazed student walked into a Virginia Tech classroom building and murdered 32 people. It’s about the fact that there were some signs that the killer at Virginia Tech was prone to violence. But nobody picked up on those signs until it was too late.

What if Oklahoma, knowing Jarboe’s background, had just let the video incident slide? Now consider the unthinkable. What if the ultimate horror story takes place and someone’s child is killed at Oklahoma with Jarboe holding the gun?

Jeebus. If the mindset here is that nobody knows what sort of madness may lurk in Jarboe’s soul, it’s time to question – seriously question – what Bob Stoops is doing on the recruiting trail. If the guy can’t even figure out when he’s recruiting a sociopath… good grief.

Look, the kid’s exercised some serious errors in judgment, enough that there’s a legitimate concern that he might go back to the well again and do something stupid – this time, on the Sooners’ dime. Given its recent experience with the job market for its players, Oklahoma doesn’t need any more embarrassment these days. It seems to me you can justify that call. But to take it to the level of “we can’t take the risk he turns out to be a mass murderer”? Wow.

… The main thing here, though, is what a gift this turns out to be for Urban Meyer and his recruiting. He can walk into any recruit’s house and say “you can play for Coach X and maybe they’ll know your name in a few years, or you can come to Florida and hear Herbstreit and Corso praise your name in a spring game before your sophomore season!” Now that may not work all the time, but it will work.

That’s not a question of right or wrong, by the way. It’s a resource. Meyer would be foolish to waste it. And he’s not stupid. The thing is, neither are his competitors. Guys like Saban, Fulmer, Spurrier and, yes, Richt are going to see this for the advantage it is and demand to be cut in on the deal, too.

Now this isn’t a done deal by any means, but the AJ-C is reporting that Georgia is talking with ESPN about broadcasting next year’s G-Day game. Mark May, Chris Fowler, come on down. Fine by me – let the rest of the nation get sick about that coverage.

Yeah, Sturdivant’s injurysucks. And Groo gets a couple of bonus points for mentioning Michael Lewis’ portrait of the offensive left tackle position in his book The Blind Side.

So, no question that it’s a significant blow. But can Georgia survive it?

The timing of this is interesting in that Bruce Feldman, in his blog at ESPN.com comes up with his list of the ten most indispensable players in college football today. I would have put the GPOOE™ at the top of the list; however, Feldman chooses to rank him second, behind Missouri’s Chase Daniel. Why? Primarily because of depth.

… But [Tebow] ranks behind Daniel because the feeling here is that the Gators have better options should they have to go to the ‘what-now?’ scenario. Big Cameron Newton can bang through tacklers in Tebow-fashion and John Brantley might be an even more polished passer. Both would probably start at a bunch of other SEC schools this season…

I’m not sure I agree with his assessment of Florida’s backups, but I get his point. Moreno doesn’t make Feldman’s list (no Bulldog does, as a matter of fact), but LeSean McCoy, a very similar player to Moreno, is third on Feldman’s list, because Pitt has few other viable options on offense.

As accomplished a year as Sturdivant had, we have to hope that Georgia has enough talented depth on the o-line to fill most of the gap. We also have to hope that Bobo and Searels can manuver around the situation. With regard to the first point, there are plenty of candidates. We’ll just have to wait and see who steps up. As for the latter, the good news is that we know from last season that the coaches have experience with exactly this problem.

So, back to the question I raised in the header to this post. Who is Georgia’s most indispensable player? Note that’s not the same thing as Georgia’s best player. If I had to choose today, it would come down to one of two: Rennie Curran or (gulp!) Blair Walsh. Of course, another key injury or two would no doubt change my choice.

What are your thoughts on this?

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UPDATE: MaconDawg at Dawg Sports has some thoughts about the Sturdivant injury here.

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UPDATE #2: Speaking of indispensable, Groo breaks down the replacement options for Sturdivant.